Sarah worked on the Toddler Project as a Project Coordinator after she graduated from University of San Diego with a B.A. in Behavioral Neuroscience. Sarah coordinated many aspects of the Toddler Project, including communication with the families, coordination of night scans, and overall project management. After working with us for three years, Sarah wanted to pursue her love of outdoors and her passion for understanding the human experience, and she is currently leading wilderness therapy groups for teens with challenging behaviors. She is likely rock climbing or rappelling somewhere in the Utah wilderness right now. She is planning to return to academia to pursue a graduate degree in counseling.

After completing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a postdoctoral training at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, Dr. Kinnear joined SCANgroup in January 2016 to pursue her research interests in understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying social communication challenges in neurodevelopmental disorders. In 2019 Dr. Kinnear returned to Rady Children’s and joined the Developmental Evaluation Clinic (DEC) team as a Clinical Psychologist, where she specializes in the assessment of toddlers, children and adolescents with developmental, behavioral and learning concerns.

Elly was an undergraduate student at SDSU majoring in psychology and minoring in statistics. She joined the lab in January 2016 and has assisted with various projects examining sensory abnormalities in ASD. She was awarded an Autism Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2017 and was an IMSD scholar. Elly completed an Honors Thesis project focusing on sensory processing abnormalities in toddlers with ASD and was named the 2018 Outstanding Graduating Psychology Senior! She is now working on her doctorate in Developmental Psychology at USC.

Nikki worked on the Toddler Project as a Rady Children’s Hospital’s liaison after she graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in Psychology. Nikki was instrumental in communicating with the families of young children diagnosed with ASD and recruiting them into our study. Nikki has moved to the LA area to be closer to her family, and currently works for Anthem as an Outreach Specialist.

After receiving his B.S. in Psychology from UCSD, Chris was a key member of the SCANgroup while completing a Masters Thesis in psychology at SDSU. In his thesis project, Chris examined functional brain network development in children with ASD. He stayed in the lab to complete several manuscripts and to assist with many aspects of the Toddler Project, including night scans. He is now pursuing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology in the SDSU / UCSD Joint Doctoral Program.

Lindsey joined SCANgroup as an undergraduate student in Psychology at the University of San Diego (USD). Lindsey was involved in many aspects of the Toddler Project and became the Project Coordinator upon graduating from USD. Lindsey left to be closer to her family in Northern California during the Covid-19 pandemic, but she is still with us in spirit (and continues working with us on some of the research projects remotely).

Katherine worked with SCANgroup for about 3 years, after graduating from Syracuse University with a B.S in Psychology. Passionate about autism research, Katherine played a leading role in our Improv Project, as both an instructor and facilitator of the data collection from parents and teens participating in the Unscripted Learning SDSU-Connections Project. Katherine presented results from this pilot program at the 2019 INSAR meeting. Currently, she is pursuing a Masters degree in Applied Child & Adolescent Psychology at University of Washington in Seattle, and receives training at the Seattle Children’s Autism Center.

After graduating from the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Psychology, Tamae joined SCANgroup in June 2018 to assist with the Toddler Project. She has always been interested in communication and communicative challenges, including those in autism, wishing to pursue a professional career in Speech and Language Pathology. She is currently a Master’s student in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program at SDSU.

Michael assisted with the Toddler Project while working on his undergraduate degree at the University of San Diego (USD). He was particularly involved in our sleep MRI studies and in characterizing sleep disturbances in children with ASD. Michael graduated from USD in Spring 2020 and plans on pursuing a graduate degree in psychology.